JOHNSTOWN — FOOTBALL

St. Francis beats Monmouth

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – John Kelly passed for a season-high 263 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another to help St. Francis beat Monmouth 45-31 Saturday.

Tied 7-7 with 7:38 left in the first quarter, Dane Domonkos returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown – the Red Flash’s first kick return for a touchdown in two seasons – to give St. Francis (4-6, 3-4 Northeast conference) a 14-7 advantage.

Monmouth (4-5, 3-3) did not get any closer as St. Francis outscored the Hawks 24-10 the rest of the first half.

Kelly tossed both his touchdowns in the first half – a 2-yard pass to Josh Thiel and a 16-yard completion to A.J. Alexander – to help the Red Flash take a 38-17 lead into halftime. Kelly completed 16 of 21 passes. Alexander led all receivers with 110 yards and 6 catches.

Anthony Abeid, who is not listed among the top three running backs on the Red Flash depth chart, finished with 119 rushing yards and a 27-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Keion Wade also rushed for a touchdown, but he was ejected from the game following a showving match.

The road conference win was the first for St. Francis since 1999 and the four wins sets a new standard since the Red Flash moved up to the Division I-level. St. Francis competes in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA.



BASKETBALL

Miller hits 1,000 as Cats get win

BLOOMSBURG – Jordan Miller scored 10 points on Saturday to become the Pitt-Johnstown men’s 24th 1,000-point scorer, and Nick Novak poured in a game-high 27 points as UPJ opened its season with a 70-58 victory at Bloomsburg University.

Miller’s milestone layup came just 1:42 into the game.

After falling behind by three early, the Mountain Cats used a

13-0 run over the next 3:57 to go up 15-5. Novak (scored four of his 11 first-half points during the run, and Noah Haurtung capped it with a basket with just under 14 minutes left in the half.

 UPJ shot 26 of 53 from the floor, including 7 of 18 from behind the 3-point line, and 11-15 from the free-throw line, while holding the Huskies to just 19 of 58 shooting.



VOLLEYBALL

UPJ clinches fifth seed

Kelsey Shanabrook finished with 16 kills to help the Lady Cat volleyball team lock down the fifth seed for next week’s WVIAC volleyball tournament with a hard-fought 3-2 Senior Day victory over Davis & Elkins.

UPJ closed the regular season 18-7 overall and 10-4 in the WVIAC.

Beth Kendera had 10 kills, two block solos and two block assists while Ashley DiRado collected eight kills, a block solo and five block assists. Pitt-Johnstown also got seven kills and 14 digs from Karen Schmidt in the win.

  Kayla Petrilla paced the Lady Cats with 24 set assists and 10 digs. Nikki Oakes tallied 17 assists. Kelsey Kohler led the way with 24 digs.



Lady Cats to host game

Coach Linda Renzi and the fifth-seeded UPJ volleyball team will host 12th-seeded Davis & Elkins in Monday’s first round of the WVIAC tournament. 

The match will start at 7 p.m. in the Sports Center. The winner advances to the quarterfinals to take on No. 4 seed Fairmont State  on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the University of Charleston.

WRESTLING

UPJ claims four titles in tourney

WASHINGTON, Pa. – Four Pitt-Johnstown wrestlers took home championships as the Mountain Cats opened their season Saturday at the Washington & Jefferson Invitational.

Jack Bachman (149 pounds), Brian Gibbons (174), Travis McKillop (184) and Josh Duplin (285) won their respective brackets with McKillop recording the most falls in the least amount of time, scoring first-round pins in each match he wrestled.

“Solid day,” reflected Pitt-Johnstown coach Pat Pecora. “We have some real strong weight classes. A couple weights we still have to get tougher in, but overall I think we had a fine showing.”



BASKETBALL

Penn Highlands notches victory

McKEESPORT – Matching 14-point efforts from Josh Corbett and and Larry Rascoe with 11 more pointrs coming from Mike Robinson helped Penn Highlands Community College to a 72-51 win over host Penn State-Greater Allegheny.

Rashaud Kelley led the Black Bears on the glass with 12 rebounds while Corbett pulled down 10 himself.

Rakim Reedy scored 13 points to pace the Lions.